Claudine Hellmuth shows how to create a holiday paper village for your mantle. It could also be a fun project to work for any time of year, and I love her mix of papers, color and sketches to add details to the village.

MantEL. Mantle is like a cloak or something. Mantel is over the fireplace.
(this has been Spelling Minute, brought to you by Nerds Across America)

Rachel Hobson

Hi Jenne!
That’s interesting – I never realized the differentiation there. I looked over on dictionary.com, and it shows that mantel (as in fireplace) can be shown either as mantel or mantle, though it does appear that -el is the preferred spelling.http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mantel
Thanks for the heads up! I think I’ll leave it as-is for now, since it reflects the same spelling as the artist’s web site, but I appreciate your Spelling Minute …. can I get in on the Nerds Across America membership? :)
Cheers!
Rach

Jenne

Anyone can join–all you have to do is bug people with unsolicited corrections. FUN & EASY! :)

ang almond

Either spelling is acceptable in the UK – the word is old english and the place by the fire where you hung your cloaks [mantels or mantles] – so they could dry out -was called the mantlepiece.
In England, we usually use the longer name- its you folk in the us who have shortened it to mantle/mantel!!
Happy Christmas from a nerdy brit!!